rumble bed << trundle bed

Perhaps there is a confusion between rumble seat and trundle bed. Or maybe because trundle beds can be noisy with their springs and squeaky metal.

Term paper mill: “Huttling in a round dome tent which was creaking from the howling winds outside like an antique colonial rumble bed, we had a decision on our hands.”
Boat specification: “Fold down rumble bed in forward cabin”
Fiction book: “Sam ran through the three suites pausing to look at a picture on a dresser by a rumble bed”
Craigslist for sale ad: “Single oak Rumble bed with two built in drawers.”

Or maybe people think it’s a term for a vibrating bed:
Discussion forum: “You know, Peach, Sterling got a roll of quarters just for you. LOL. What are the quarters for?? A rumble bed??”

Could also be an alternate spelling for a bed with rumpled sheets:
Stock photo: “An Asian boy and toddler jump on a rumbled bed”
There are lots of examples of fanfic using the phrase rumbled sheets.

Re: rumble bed << trundle bed

Another very nice eggcorn, larrybob. The name “trundle bed” is new to me. If someone had told me it was a rumble bed, I would have found that a perfect name. It was really interesting looking back into the name, which turns out to be an old one. I don’t know what kneck of the woods you’re in. Perhaps these contraptions are familiar where you’re at.

A trundle was apparently a box on wheels before it became an low-centre-of-gravity waddle. Wikipedia gives alternative names for a boxed bed on wheels, all exquisitely logical: trundle bed, truckle bed, trumple bed or hurly-bed. All but trumple are closely or indirectly connected to wheels. Hurly is also tied to commotion or noise, like your rumble.

I suppose truck could rumble in there too. Who knew that truck comes from PIE roots, via a Gk word for wheel.

Re: rumble bed << trundle bed

I wanted to add that I felt physical relief in learning, during the above forays, that the two meanings of truck come from distinct roots. This is the eggcorn motivation made flesh. If you need the same sort of relief by putting order in your trucking, see truckle where you’ll see the wheeled kind, and the obsequy, and truck, v. 2, where there is truck and trade and trocar (S., P.) and troquer (F.).

Meanwhile, other words that can be thrown into the mix are trunk and under.

Re: rumble bed << trundle bed

As long as we are thinking about beds in a vertical dimension, why not go up? “Bonk beds” for “bunk beds” is mostly a pun (captured in this Family Circus cartoon from a few years ago), but a few sites seem to think “bonk” is the standard phrasing. Examples:

“Newspaper article:”: “The camp is held ‘at an Hacienda, an old colonial building with camp ground facilities. We sleep in bonk beds and the food is vegetarian,’ explains Cristina Mendoza, facilitator.”

Re: rumble bed << trundle bed

Bonk bed is an ingenious keeper.

I should point out an error I made above, where I used the word obsequy as if it meant “obsequiousness”. I modelled it on obloquy, and wasn’t sure but thought it must be right. It turns out that an obsequy is a funeral rite and has nothing to do with obsequiousness, other than being one more really old word confusion to add to this forum. Before it even got to England, obsequium as compliance got tangled up with another word for funeral rites, exsequiae, which would mean something like “what follows beyond the end”, I suppose, and yielded obsequiae, “obsequies”.